Pandora's Labyrinth
by icebarrierguy
Summary: A great new dueling competition has opened up! By pulling one of the eight "Ghost rare" cards included in the brand-new edition of Yu-Gi-Oh packs, one gets the opportunity to participate in the greatest tournament of all time- but perhaps more sinister things await than duels in "Pandora's Labyrinth", and what nobody yet knows is that only one duelist will return alive.
1. Prologue

The room was completely bare.

It was also completely white- the furniture, the ceiling, the doors, the fans, and even the lights, which brightly illuminated the entire area. The room was in the shape of an octagon, with eight walls, all the same length. Each wall had a door in the middle.

In the direct center of the room, a glowing ring appeared. Then, the area it outlined rose up, revealing a circular elevator- propelled by some device below. The floors, buttons and roof of the elevator were white, but the walls were glass, revealing the young woman that was inside.

She appeared to be in here 20s, with waist-length black hair and bangs across her forehead. She was wearing a white dress and a white lab coat, and clutched a white clipboard. As she observed the room, she spoke into an earpiece- which was white, of course.

"The room is prepared, and everything seems in order."

From the earpiece, a robotic voice replied.

"Excellent. Soon, project "Labyrinth" will begin."

At the same time, throughout the world, special edition booster packs for the popular trading card game Yu-Gi-Oh were being released. Essentially the most popular pastime in the world, the booster packs would have sold well anyways, but they sold out almost immediately due to the contents that they may contain- one ticket to a tournament which promised fantastic prizes.

Nobody knew what form the tournament would take- whether it would be knockout, or round robin. However, nobody cared. Whoever won would have an all-access pass to every major dueling event, regardless of whether their skill met "pro" standards or not.

The rules were announced on National Television. To enter one would have to pull a "ghost rare" card from the special edition booster packs and build a deck around that card to use in the tournament. However, only eight of these cards were printed, and only eight people would win the right to compete. Furthermore, one of the cards was the main card of an all-new archetype, and it was assumed that whoever pulled this card would hold an advantage over everybody else in the tournament.

What was withheld from the public is that these eight lucky winners would not enter into an arena but into a whitewashed room. These eight people would step through eight doors, one to each door. And these eight doors would lead to the labyrinth, where they would be forced to overcome challenges beyond just dueling.

Another thing nobody knew is that only one person would return.


	2. Chapter 1

The train roared into the metro station, coming to a screeching halt. The station was dark, only dimly lit by the lights which waned strung by thin cords to the ceiling. The station was long, and the walls were grey. A few red benches, made of metal, lined the walls. There were barely any people in the station.

As the doors opened, a young man walked out. He was a little less than 6 feet tall and looked like he was in his early 20s. He had dirty blonde hair, with a fringe that covered all but a small sliver of skin in the middle of the forehead, cut short so it did not obscure his eyes. He was wearing a pair of khaki slacks and a dark purple shirt. He paused for a moment and stuck his hand in his pocket.

Luo searched his pocket for change and frowned. He had enough for a meal, or a pack of cards, but certainly not enough for both. He was pretty hungry, and it was hard to go to sleep on an empty stomach. On the other hand, buying one of the new packs also seemed like a pretty good investment. Sighing, he began to walk down the nearly empty metro station, the train he had just left streaming away behind him. As he walked up the stairs, his stomach began to growl again.

The dueling world had been buzzing with news about the pack- and the chance to get into the competition using a card that might come with your purchase. Of course, with only eight cards and millions of duellists buying as many packs as they could afford, pulling one of the so called "ghost rares" was practically impossible. Of course, there was more to the packs than that- not only did they include the new "Pandora" archetype, they also included every single card previously released in the history of the game, making them a best seller even without the promise of being a potential winner.

Luo sighed, thinking to himself. "If I buy the pack, I might get some good cards, but if I go to a restaurant I might get some good food." He climbed up a short staircase, exiting the metro into a brightly-lit main street area, lined with shops. The first shop was a card store. Next to it was a KFC. The card store was closer, so that settled that. He stepped into the store.

A bell rang as he entered. The store had glass cases lining the walls, filled with cards. The glass counter had expensive singes inside of it, with the prices listed. Luo immediately walked to the counter, addressing the man who stood behind it. "Hi, Sam. What's up?"

Sam looked up from pricing some singles, startled. He was skinny, with long brown hair that came down to his shoulders. He was wearing jeans with a red shirt. Behind him were shelves filled with all of the latest booster packs. "Business isn't bad, although we don't get many in at this hour. It must be nearly 9:00 by now. What are you doing out so late?"

Luo sighed. "It's been a really long day; I had to work the late shift. College bills don't pay themselves. In any case, I'm here to buy a pack of cards, I'll take the latest". His stomach rumbled again. Sam noticed.

"You aren't using your money to buy cards instead of food, are you? But hey, I aint complaining, just more money for me!" Sam said. He slid one booster pack over the counter. Luo took four dollars out of his pocket and handed them to Sam. He then picked up the booster pack. It was plain foil, and on the foil plain black print read "Special Edition Booster Pack. Five cards included. Miniscule chance one is a ghost rare". So evidently the company that came up with this promotion had a bit of humor. He exited the store, Sam calling to his back "Good luck, and try to pull something good!"

Luo began to walk down the street, taking a right down a thing side alley. As he headed to his apartment, he fumbled with the pack, opening it and looking at the contents of the cards. He flipped through the cards. One Evilswarm Castor, one Machina Gearframe, one Constellar Omega- that one was good, maybe he could trade it away to somebody who ran the Constellar deck. He looked at the other two cards. One Madolche Puddincess and an Ojama red. All in all, certainly not a bad booster pack. He exited the alley and walked up to a tall thing building, with grey concrete walls. He entered and walked up a flight of stairs, taking a key out of his pocket.

Luo came to a plain wooden door with the number 7 on it. He placed the key in the lock and entered into a plain room with a television, sofa, desk, one chair and a bed. He collapsed onto the bed, placing his cards on the desk, and immediately fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 2

In a dull apartment, the first rays of dawn were just breaking through curtained windows. The sole occupant of the bed did not stir. Suddenly, an alarm clock rang, shrilly breaking through the drowsy silence of the early morning. The person in the bed slowly started to move, and a hand banged down on the alarm clock, silencing it.

Sitting up and rubbing his eyes, Luo took a few minutes to become fully awake, almost falling back into his bed rather than getting up and heading out into the day. He stood up and staggered to a mirror.

"I'm a mess".

Luo saw his reflection- tired eyes and hair that was still sticking up from being slept on. He walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out some clothes, retreating into the restroom. He emerged with his hair strait and teeth brushed (but not flossed- screw what the dentist said) wearing navy blue pants and a white polo shirt. He headed towards the door, grabbing his wallet from the desk on the way out.

As he exited the building, the sun had climbed higher into the sky. Luo walked down the alleyway and then through the main street to get to the metro station, which was as grey, dull, cold and damp as always. He caught a train and took the blue line down to stops, exiting into a metro station that was completely different form the one he had left.

This station was clearly well-looked after and, in stark contrast to the previous station, was brightly painted and full of people. Luo stepped on the escalator and ascended into a street bordering a park full of tall trees. Walking through the park, he came to a large mansion. Painted completely white, it was rectangular and featured a gate surrounding it and multiple marble columns. The plaque on the front gate read "Redwood Academy".

As he walked through the open gates, he noticed somebody jogging towards him out of the corner of his eye. Turning fully, he saw that it was the only person at the school that he could really call a friend, George.

George was a bit short and slightly chubby, with pale blue eyes and pure white hair that crawled down the nape of his neck. He wore a school uniform- a black suit with a white shirt and navy blue tie. In one hand he carried a briefcase. As he walked up, he looked over Luo, taking in the tired look in his eyes and lack of a proper school uniform.

George stood there awkwardly for a while, and then spoke. "I see you've been up late again. All that effort and you still can't afford a proper school uniform!"

Luo sighed and replied. "Give me a break. You know that I can barely afford this school and my living expenses."

George laughed. "Don't pretend that's all you spend your money on- what use would going to the best dueling academy in the area be if you didn't even have cards to make a deck?"

Luo was glad that the topic of conversation had shifted, and immediately replied. "Speaking of Yu-Gi-Oh, what do you think of the new booster packs?"

A wild fervor appeared in George's eyes as he began to speak excitedly. "I need to get one of those Ghost Rares! I've been buying packs like crazy but I haven't managed to pull one yet. Heck, I haven't even gotten many good cards at all. Here, look at what I got in the last pack that I bought on the way here."

Luo wordlessly flicked through the five cards that George handed him. Ojama Red, Ojama Blue, Ojama Yellow, Ojama Black… Luo smiled to himself. "Four of the Ojamas… that's quite some luck, huh?"

George scowled. "It would be if they weren't so useless".

Luo shrugged, and looked at the last card. "Hey, Madolche Mageliene. Isn't this one sort of rare?"

George grudgingly agreed, although he still sounded cheated as he spoke. "Yeah, but what good can Madolches do? They are an archetype based off of pastries after all. What place do they have in a game that should be dominated by powerful dragons, or sorcerers?"

For some reason Luo felt that he had to defend the card. "The effect is pretty decent; I bet you could easily make a loop with it. It probably plays in with what the rest of the archetype does, so maybe you should look into that before you are so quick to decide." George looked peeved, and gave Luo an annoyed glance. "No way! I still have to finish my Constellar deck- I don't have time to mess around with weak archetypes like Madolche. You can have that card if you want it."

Luo looked at the card and separated it from the rest, handing the Ojamas back to George. A free card was a free card, after all. He held it in his left hand, grasping it with his finger and his thumb.

As he held the card, the area where he held it slowly began to turn white. As he watched, dumbfounded, the whiteness spread, bleaching the entire card until there was no color left. The text, the picture, even the back of the card- everything was completely white, almost even transparent.

White like the color that both Luo's and George's faces had turned.

Almost as white as a ghost.

George started, and grabbed the card. "That's mine!"

Luo, startled, was too slow to grab it back. "I thought you gave it to me…"

George shrugged. "And now I'm taking it back."

Luo sighed, knowing that with his excessive amount of cards George would have a better chance at making a tournament-winning deck anyways. When suddenly, a voice beside his ear spoke.

"Are you really going to give me back to THAT guy?"


	4. Chapter 3

Luo looked around for the voice, startled. As his eyes scanned the area, a small pair of feet suspended near the top of his head caught his eyes. He quickly looked upwards, and saw Madolche Mageliene hovering in mid-air.

Thought after thought raced through his head, but he soon came to a plausible conclusion for the strange phenomenon- the card was a spirit card. Madolche Mageliene was the spirit. Despite the fact that he no longer possessed the card, the spirit was still here.

The spirit seemed fairly annoyed with him too.

"Come on, you could have at least put up a little bit of a fight."

Luo sighed. Everything strange seemed to be happening to him today, and he needed to make it to class. By not even having a proper uniform he was skating on thin ice as it was, and being late for class certainly wouldn't help. Frowning to himself, he composed his thoughts and spoke.

"George bought the pack, George would be able to make a better deck, and I really don't think that I can afford to argue with George. I got into this university because of my skill, but I don't think that counts for much when I don't have a deck that can match up to anybody else's."

Mageliene kicked him in the forehead. It hurt.

"Seriously? If I wanted to team up with that guy, I would have appeared for him. Just like the school accepted you because of your skill, I chose you because you have a fair amount of talent for dueling."

Luo ignored her, musing to himself out loud, "Well, you are a spirit card, but then why did the card turn white?"

Mageliene harrumphed. "Isn't it obvious? To appear in this plane of existence, we need to drain the colors of our card. Or do you want me to appear to you in black and white?"

"I would rather that you appear without a voice. Or didn't appear at all," Luo responded. "I have to get to class, or I might get kicked out."

Mageliene kicked again. "Whatever, but I don't see why your just letting what is literally a life changing chance pass you by. You will gain more by entering the tournament than by continuing your miserable existence just by conforming so you can stay in this school".

Luo contemplated for a minute, and then responded. "I highly doubt that. Even if I entered the tournament I would just lose right away; I don't have any of the cards to make a proper deck for you. This school, however, is the best in the area; automatic duel tables in every classroom, and the best duel professors in the state. I have much knowledge to gain here, but only certain defeat waits at the tournament."

Mageliene looked depressed. "You really have no self-confidence at all. Well, for what it's worth, I think that you have all the skills you need and are wasting your time here. Why don't you use that money you make for tuition to buy a deck to put me in?"

Luo ignored her, and walked through the doors of the grand building. The carpets were dark red with golden fringes on the edge, and tapestries decorated the walls. The windows were stain-glass, and depicted famous duelists such as Kaiba and Yugi- something for the students to aspire for. There was no way that he was good enough as he was. He still had to learn, until even with his terrible deck, he would be able to win. Then, and only then, would he strike out to make his fortune in the dueling world.

He walked into the classroom just as class started- promptly at 9:00, every day. The professor looked at him distastefully, and then ignored him. Rather, he called to the room at large, "you all know that I believe that we learn best from experience. So let's accumulate some experience, shall we? One of you will be chosen to duel against me."

The professor was a diminutive man with a shock of white hair that stuck out at all angles, and a white handlebar mustache. Luo looked around the classroom. Everybody was in their proper uniform. The room was circular, with magnificent wooden panelling. The seats were arrayed along most of the walls and continued downwards, making the room seem like a small amphitheatre. The professor took out a black top hat and pulled a name from it, then called it out. "Today, it seems I'll be dueling against Luo."

Luo sighed. His deck was nowhere near as good as the professor's, and with every loss people whispered more and more about how he shouldn't be here. However, right when he was preparing to step up to at least try to do some damage, George barrelled through the door. Behind him in the doorway was a woman wearing a white dress. She had long black hair that reached her waist and black bangs across her forehead, cut so they would not obscure her eyes. On her dress was a nametag, but Luo was too far to read it.

George was panting heavily, but still managed to choke out, "Luo. Come here." Luo was glad for the excuse to leave. The professor seemed annoyed to have been cheated out of an easy victory, and grunted. "This looks important, you are excused from class."

Luo stepped out once again into the majestic hallway. George had caught his breath. "I told the company doing the promo, Starburst, and told them that I pulled a ghost rare, but they didn't believe me. So I thought, maybe if you hold it…"

George handed Madolche Mageliene over to Luo. It turned pure white, like before. The strange woman's eyes widened and George grinned, turning to the woman. "See, I told you that it would work! Now let me into that tournament." He grabbed the card back and its color immediately returned.

The woman paused, and then spoke. "You didn't pull the ghost rare, Luo did. He enters."

George's face turned a nasty shade of puce. "I paid for the pack, I pulled the card, I get into the tournament!"

The woman- named Ahra (Luo was close enough to read the name tag now) had an answer on hand immediately. "How about you two duel over it? I'll keep Mageliene with me and award it to the victor." She reached out and plucked the card from George's hand. Luo

George grinned. "Yeah, that's a pretty good idea. How about it, Luo?" Luo caught a glimpse of it as she placed it into an inside pocket somewhere in her dress- its color had left it again.

Luo sighed. George wasn't a good duelist, but he did have a good deck- while Luo didn't. Duels seemed to rely more on your cards than your skill nowadays, and the best duelists had plenty of both. He didn't seem to have a choice though.

"Fine, I'll duel. Time and place?"

The woman spoke immediately before George could answer.

"Here and now."

Luo grimly pulled a small box, full of cards, out of his pocket. George reached into his pocket and pulled out a deck as well. He then frowned. "The hallway doesn't have automatic duel tables, right? I guess we'll just have to do this the old fashioned way." He then reached into his bag and pulled out a beautiful duel disk, embellished with gold flakes. He then looked at Luo and chuckled. "Oh yeah, you don't even have a duel disk, do you?" he asked, pulling out another plain duel disk. "Here, you can use my spare."

Luo caught the disk that George tossed over. "Thanks."

As he strapped the disk to his arm, a voice quietly whispered into his ear. He didn't have to turn to know that Mageliene was hovering beside him. "This is your big chance. You better win."


	5. Chapter 4

Luo nodded to signal that he had heard. He sighed, knowing that although he would try his hardest to win, his chances were fairly low. George had a better deck, and even if Luo was better at dueling, the difference between his deck and George's deck might be too much for even skill to bridge the gap.

Luo placed his deck in the duel disk waited for George, who seemed to be having trouble strapping his duel disk on. As George grappled with it, cursing, Luo wondered if he really wanted to win. No doubt if he acquired the Ghost Rare he would be whisked off to the tournament.

However, he was sure that everybody else would have better decks and maybe even more skill than he did. Unless there was a prize for an 8th place finish, he wouldn't gain anything from it, except for several days off of school and work- something he could not afford.

George finished strapping on his duel disk, panting lightly. He managed to place the deck in the disk, and stood up straight, an excited gleam in his eye. Luo smiled to himself- whatever his faults, George truly did enjoy dueling.  
Just when Luo was about to ask who went first Ahra spoke up. "Luo will go first". Neither George nor Luo had any complaints, and so the duel began.

"Both players will start with 4000 life points" Ahra announced as the life point meters both appeared with 4000. George grinned. "We really are doing this old-school, huh? Just like Yugi and Kaiba!"

Luo did not share George's excitement. He would need all of his 8000 lifepoints against George's constellars- now George could win even faster.

Luo drew five cards and looked at his starting hand. Because he could not afford a proper deck, his deck was a mismatch of cards that worked together to stall the opponent and drain their recourses. The deck offered him many courses of action, but oftentimes the deck's lack of an otk or swarm mechanic lost him the duel.

This hand looked promising. One Marshmallon, one Shining Angel, one Winda Priestess of Gusto, a Mystical Space Typhoon and a Torrential Tribute.  
He drew a card- it was Lava Golem. That would come in useful for dealing with the XYZ monsters that George was sure to throw his way.

"I'll set two cards in my spell/trap card zone and set a monster facedown" Luo said, setting Marshmallon in facedown defense position, and then setting his Mystical Space Typhoon and Torrential Tribute.

"I'll draw!" George cried, drawing a card and then looking at his hand.  
George spent a few minutes planning his strategy. "Luo's sure to have some annoying stall-type card facedown, and his two facedowns are most likely some form of mass removal." After a fair bit of consideration, he set a card facedown in the spell/trap card zone and yelled "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon on that facedown of yours, Luo!"

Luo sighed. George had targeted his own Mystical Space Typhoon. "I'll chain" Luo declared, as his Mystical Space Typhoon targeted and buffeted George's facedown card (Mirror Force) off of the field. George looked peeved as he realized his mistake, but he pressed onwards regardless. "Now I'll summon Constellar Pollux" he declared, as a warrior bearing a shining silver sword and wearing white armor appeared on the battlefield. "Now, due to his effect, I can normal summon another Constellar monster this turn!" George shouted, as he violently tore a card out of his hand and thrust it onto the field. "I'll summon Constellar Kaus. Now, I will use his effect twice to raise his own level and Pollux's level by one!" George's eyes gleamed. He raised a card from his extra deck up as high as he could reach, clearly preparing to slam it down. Luo observed silently, amused. George was really getting into this.

George, with his card still thrust up in the air, swiftly summoned it while yelling, "Overlay! I XYZ Summon Constellar Pleiades!"  
A warrior appeared, replacing Kaus and Pollux. He had white and gold armor, and bore a sword with an extravagant hilt carved in the shape of a crescent moon.

George was caught up in the moment. "Constellar Pleiades attacks your facedown monster!" he cried.

Luo hadn't even had time to activate Torrential Tribute, but he didn't mind- it would have not done much good, and George was unlikely to be able to kill him that turn, anyways, and it would be more beneficial to use it when George had more monsters on the field. As Pleiades struck his facedown card, an oddly marshmallow with googly eyes appeared. Pleiades' sword cut it in half, but it somehow stuck itself back together. The marshmallow grinned as George lost 1000 life points.

"Oh, come on!" George moaned, annoyed that he had made yet another mistake. "Don't worry about it too much" Luo called. "Learn from this and remember to bounce my card before attacking it next time!" George sighed, and used Pleiades' effect to return Marshmallon to Luo's hand. "Your turn" George called.

Luo drew a card- it was Debris Dragon. He once again considered his options. George would make sure to bounce anything that he set on the field before attacking this time. Even if he set Marshmallon again it would do no good. However, if he did not set anything, than George could return his Torrential Tribute to his hand, summon more Constellars, and attack for an easy win.  
After considering his options carefully, Luo calmly said, "I set a card facedown."

George drew a card, and grinned. "I'll detach an XYZ material from my Constellar Pleiades and use his effect to Return your facedown spell/trap card to your hand." He then proceeded to summon Constellar Leonis, and then using his additional normal summon to summon Constellar Sheratan. Searching through his deck, George added Constellar Pollux to his hand, shuffled his deck, and placed it back into the Duel Disk. George then raised another card from his extra deck high into the air and breathed in deeply, preparing to shout. "I XYZ summon Constellar Hyades!"

A warrior also in white-and-gold armor appeared, bearing two twin blades. He had 1900 attack. "I'll attack your Marshmallon- don't even try to look innocent, Luo, I know what it is- with Hyades" George said smugly. Marshmallon appeared again, and George's life points dropped to 2000. "You know," Luo mused aloud, "you could have just let Marshmallon be. Then, if I wanted to damage you with his effect, I would have to flip summon him into attack position." George scowled, and responded, "your turn, Luo."

Luo drew a card. It was Creature Swap. Luo grinned, and then placed a card on the field- or, to be more specific, George's side of the field.

"I'll tribute your two monsters to summon Lava Golem in face up attack position" Luo declared. Luo then changed Marshmallon into attack position.

"Now, I'll activate Creature Swap".

Lava Golem oozed over to Luo's side of the field while Marshmallon happily bounced over to George, who was beginning to realize what was about to happen.

"Lava Golem attacks your Marshmallon."

Lava Golem engulfed Marshmallon with 3000 attack to Marshmallon's 300. Marshmallon remained unharmed, but the rest of George's life points evaporated.

George stood rooted to the spot, stunned. Ahra was immediately full of life, however, despite the fact that she had not said a word the entire duel.

"Congratulations, Luo!" she said, smiling, and thrust a card into his hand.

"Here's your ghost rare. Now, to register for the tournament…"

Luo knew there was only one way out of this situation.

"Here, George, have your card back." Luo handed the card to George, who now looked even more stunned. "Why?" he spluttered.

"Because," Luo responded, "You bought the pack, you pulled the card, and I really don't think that I have the leisure time for this tournament. You know, I never did say that I wanted your Magileine, or that I wanted to enter in this thing."

Luo could feel Magileine kicking him fiercely in the head- George didn't notice, so he supposed he couldn't see her- but ignored it. After a few minutes, Magileine's spirit departed in a huff.

George thought for a moment, and realized that Luo was right. "Yeah, I'm sorry for forcing this duel on you and jumping to conclusions" he conceded, accepting the card.

Ahra now looked more stunned then George, and then started grumbling to herself. "Typical. Any other idiot would be happy to skip off to the tournament and disregard reality. But of course, I have to bring in whoever brings out Magileine, and that guy just has to be the only sensible person that's every bought a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I'm in deep trouble if I can't get this "Luo" character into the tournament".

George interrupted her mid-rant. "So… can I still not enter the tournament?"

"Sorry," Ahra began, "but that card isn't ghost rare when you hold it, so you can't enter." George sighed, and mentally braced himself. "Hey Luo, if you want, than I suppose I really could give you-"

Luo cut him off mid-sentence. "Thanks George, but I'll have to pass on that. Although, seeing your Constellars in action did remind me- I pulled this earlier" he said, taking out Constellar Omega.

George's eyes widened. "I only need two of those to complete this deck, and you have one? Do you want anything for it? I'll buy it off of you if you want."

"Sure" Luo replied, as George took out his wallet. Ahra snapped into action, and walked over to George, throwing a furtive glance at Luo. She whispered something to George, who immediately turned away. He turned back, holding out a wad of bills. Luo accepted it and handed George Constellar Omega.

Something slipped out of the bills, and Luo instinctively caught it.

He looked down and saw a Yu-Gi-Oh card- Madolche Magileine, which was rapidly turning white. He looked up at George and groaned. "Why would you even-?"

Luo saw Ahra pass George a card, and George grinned, holding up another Constellar Omega. Luo scowled, as Ahra rushed over to him, pulling out a large form.

"Congratulations, you are eligible to participate in the tournament. Please sign here."

Luo glared at her. "What if I don't want to sign-"

Ahra cut him off mid-sentence, something that seemed to be happening to everybody a lot lately. "You will sign. I work for rich people, and if I convince them to sue you for not signing this form, than I assure you we will win the court case, no matter how stupid that sounds."

George cut in. "its fine, Luo. I can lend you some of my cards, help you build a deck, and you'll surely come out of this thing with some prize money."

Luo realized that he had no choice. Swearing under his breath, he grabbed the form


	6. Chapter 5

Luo woke up, looking around, confused. After he had beaten George in the duel and been tricked into entering the competition, the rest of the day had passed so uneventfully it had been a blur. He barely remembered anything before collapsing into his bed in the middle of the night.

As he went through his usual morning routine, random thoughts threw themselves across his mind. As he managed to pull himself together and fully waken, they began to organize themselves into comprehensible sentences.

"I'm in the contest… what do I do now?"

"I have Madolche Magileine… what do I do with it? It would just be dead in any deck with only one copy…"

"What do I do now?"

After standing in the middle of his small apartment, one foot in and the other out of his shoes, Luo decided that the only thing to do was to progress through his usual schedule, and attempt to work things out during the little free time that he had.

George left the apartment and walked the usual route towards the schoolyard. He exited the well-kept station and meandered towards the gates of the academy, pleased that he was early enough to not have to sprint towards the classroom, he heard footsteps behind him. Turning around suddenly, George, who had been running to catch up to him (probably having seen him on the path to school) almost rammed into him. George managed to pull himself to a stop just short of Luo but didn't stand up, remaining bent over and panting.

Luo gave George a few minutes to regain his breath. After a few minutes had passed George stood up fully and addressed Luo. "Hey, Luo, I'm really sorry about yesterday. The tournament is exciting to me, but I thought about it a while last night, and I realize that even missing a day of school could be fatal to you unless there was some form of large payoff." Luo was surprised at the well thought out apology, and could only manage to nod.

"I want to make it up to you" George said, swinging his bag off of his shoulders and reaching in. "Thanks to me you're in this tournament and I want you to get something out of it. I've brought in all of my cards, and combined with the little that you have, perhaps we can make a deck. I already looked through them all and found two of these."

George extracted a small packet from the pack and revealed two copies of Madolche Magileine. "Even I know that you can't make a Madolche deck without some three of these, right? I only have these two but luckily you have the third." Luo subconsciously reached into his pants pocket, touching his wallet. The copy of Madolche Magileine he owned was placed where he would place a credit card if he had one.

As if the spirit inside sensed Luo's sudden small burst of acknowledgement towards it, a voice spoke out loud. "I hope this kid owns more than just two copies of me, or we may not stand much of a chance after all." Evidently George could hear it too, because he looked around, startled. Luo's feelings of pleasant surprise at George's heartfelt apology and offer of assistance began to fade, as the voice that somehow managed to be sweet and sassy at the same time spoke again. "Go through all of his cards and take out all the Madolches. I'll tell you which of my friends I want with me in the deck." Luo heard the distant ringing of the school bell, signalling the start of lessons. George snapped out of his confusion as Luo began to sprint towards the entrance of the school. Heaving his heavy bag onto his shoulders and shoving two Madolche Magileine into his pocket, George ran after Luo, once again panting for breath.

Luo burst into his classroom in just as the professor called his name. The professor gave him a stern look but did not comment. Luo quietly sat in his seat. George ran into the room immediately after Luo had sat down and, then attempted to sit down, but his stomach cramped. Groaning in pain, he fell to the floor. Most of the other students looked sympathetic. "Surprising, seeing as in a regular classroom they would be laughing, but that's rich people for ya" thought Luo, chuckling to himself as he helped George up. However, one student at the back of the room was sniggering. He was wearing his school uniform, but as if to flaunt his wealth, also wore more jewellery than most of the women in the room. He even sported an oversized golden belt buckle. Glittering with rhinestones, it was in the shape of a J.

Despite his accessories, "Jay" as he liked to be called had a fairly average face. He was gaunt and thin, but not very tall. If it were not for his jewellery he would have been a very easy to miss person. Well, if not for his jewellery and his personality.

Jay stood up and spread his arms wide as if about to deliver a speech. Unfortunately, he did deliver a speech, much to Luo's aggravation. "Well, well, if it isn't Good George. You know why I call you good, George, cause you aren't great like I am! Am I right, ladies?" Jay looked around the room. Everybody avoided his gaze, but this only seemed to encourage him. "Good George, average George, moderately wealthy, and barely moderately good at Yu-Gi-Oh. Hell, even Loser Luo's better than you." Luo ignored Jay, used to these sorts of taunts, but George clenched one hand in his fist. Before it could go any further, the Professor calmly walked into Jay's line of view and glared at him. Jay paused, and decided against continuing his attack, choosing instead to sit down and put his feet up on the desk. He occasionally sent a few contemptuous looks at George and Luo.

"Today we're going to be honing our skills with Dueling puzzles" the Professor said. All the student's eyes turned towards the Professor. He was grinning madly, his white hair sticking out more than it usually did. Even his overbearing moustache appeared to be bouncing up and down. "If you guys do worse than Luo again, I'll make you pay his rent- not to worry though, your lunch money should probably set him up for a couple of months!" He said, as the class laughed. Luo sighed, but the Professor caught his gaze and winked. Luo brightened up a bit, realizing that the Professor had, in his own insulting manner, complimented him. With an open mind and a slightly improved mood, Luo touched the desk. What appeared to be wood revealed itself to be a screen with a Duel puzzle on it. A smile slowly made its way across Luo's face as he aced everything the puzzles had to offer, never failing to overcome the challenges placed before him, consistently reducing his opponent's life points to zero.

Three hours or so later, the class left the room and headed in different directions towards their own separate areas where they chose to eat their lunch. Luo and George headed towards a small garden located near the back of the grand school building and sat down at a gilded picnic table. As George began to search through his cards and extracting anything that had "Madolche" in the card name, Luo took out his wallet and held the snow-white Madolche Magileine in his hand. After a few minutes, George looked up from his cards, a small stack of them in his hand. The rest were piled around him along with several empty tins. "Here's all the Madolches I own, Luo."

However, right as he was about to hand the cards over to George, a hand reached out and grabbed them. The hand was seemingly encased in a gauntlet of pure bling. George and Luo looked up to see Ray flicking through the cards. "Madolche. Really, Luo? Even somebody as poor as you can do better than this." Ray stuck his chest out and sneered. Luo continued to ignore Ray as he had in class, but he could hear Magileine swearing at Ray under her breath next to his ear. George stood up and glared at Ray.

"You're not fooling anybody around here anymore. Luo might be poor, but if he had your money, I bet he wouldn't be stupid enough to go spend it all getting wasted in the Bahamas. How old are those rings of yours? I'm pretty sure you've been wearing the same ones for a few years. Your hair's all slicked back again today, Ray. Is that because you paralyzed it with hairspray again… or maybe you can't afford a shower so you're slicking it back with grease?"

Ray's bravado faded immediately, replaced by a look of panic. "Th-that's not what happened, I swear!"

The sneer that had graced Ray's face earlier that morning now was worn by George. "Yeah, sure. You were found at a private beach, with a bottle of beer in your hand, and several hundred in the sand around you."

Ray looked desperate. "I told you! I told everybody! I have no idea what happened!"

Luo muttered under his breath. "If I drank that much I wouldn't remember what happened for the past few years either."

Ray managed to regain his composure and shot a furious look at Luo. "Let's see if you can bite as hard as you bark. I challenge you to a duel!" George stood up immediately and moved between him and Luo. "Luo has a tournament to prepare for. He doesn't have time to waste on idiots like you." George grabbed the Madolche cards out of Ray's hand and handed them to Luo, who started looking through them. "I'll accept your challenge in his place, so prepare to lose!"

Ray grinned. "Thanks for the free victory. Even with his mess of a deck Luo would have been more of a challenge." Ray suddenly paused as a thought struck him. "Speaking of Luo, where did he get the money for a tournament entry anyways?" He wondered aloud. Ray looked closely at Luo, noticing the white card on the stack of other Madolche cards. "No way…" he made to grab the card, but George moved to block him.

"Shove off, Ray. Your little tropical adventure lost you your VIP status, and if you try to steal, you'll be expelled, just like any of us would be."

Ray scowled. "I'll just take my anger out on you. See you after school today, punching bag."

Ray left, with George glaring after him furiously. Luo, having sat quietly through the whole scene, continued to shuffle through the Madolches, Magileine whispering suggestions in his ear. As Luo separated the Madolche cards and George went through his stacks of cards again to find some staple spells and traps to put in the deck, a blissful silence descended upon the quiet garden.

In a pure white room, however, the silence was broken as Ahra spoke. She was facing a figure shrouded in darkness, suspended in middle of the room. "All of the contestants have been found. When shall we commence operations?"

Through the darkness, shining white teeth appeared, barred in a grin. "At our earliest convenience. In the meantime, I have other preparations to be made. See that everything in our little "tournament" goes according to plan."

Ahra briskly nodded and exited the room as a glowing smile slowly disappeared into a black mist.


	7. Chapter 6

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and it seemed as if the hours flew by until school was over. As George and Luo exited the same classroom in which they had had their first lesson, they both felt a hand on their shoulders. Shoving them apart and stepping in between them, Jay looked at each of them in turn, his usual smirk on his face.

"So, George, are you ready to lose?"

George glared at him, clutching his deck.

Jay steered them both to another end of the hallway, stepping inside to an empty classroom. He walked to one end, and George walked to the other. Luo leaned against the wall. He caught George's eye and spoke.

"Just keep calm and don't rush decisions."

George nodded to him. Ray removed a deck from one of his pockets. He casually tossed it from hand to hand. George took out his deck, and Jay grinned.

"Let's get this started. Dual Duel mode, activated!"

At these words, two small rectangles about the size of a trading card rose from two adjacent tables, hovering in the air. George and Jay put their decks on the rectangles, and a holographic dueling field extended from them. The field was clear, with slots allotted for Deck, Graveyard, Extra Deck, Side Deck, and Monster/Spell/Trap zones. Hovering above each player's heads was their life points. Both players drew their starting hands.

George and Jay spoke at the same time. "Let's Duel!"

"Because I challenged you, I'll give you the first turn" Jay said to George.

George harrumphed. "At least you still have some manners."

George looked briefly at his hand. "I summon Constellar Leonis. With his effect, I can normal summon another Constellar monster this turn."

A short warrior appeared. He had a blue Lion's mane and shining white and gold armor. He held a short dagger, appearing to be comprised of blue energy.

George placed another card on the holographic field. "I'll use my extra normal summon to summon Constellar Sheratan!"

A warrior with the same color armor as Leonis appeared. Constellar Sheratan, however, had Ram horns affixed to his helmet.

"With his effect, I am allowed to add a Constellar monster from my deck to my hand" George said, taking a card from his deck and placing it in his hand. "Now, I'll XYZ summon! I overlay Constellar Sheratan and Constellar Leonis to XYZ summon Wind-Up Zenmaines in face-up defence position! "

At these words, a wind-up toy appeared on the field. It was multicolored, with interlocking parts, a triangular shaped body and two claws. It boasted 2100 defence, and a wicked effect.

"I'll warn you in advance, Jay- if Wind-Up Zenmaines would be destroyed, I can detach an XYZ material from him and negate the destruction. Then, at the end of the turn, I can destroy a card you control."

"I knew that!" Jay shouted, annoyed. "Are you done yet, or can I go?"

"I'll end my turn" George said, smiling smugly.

Jay covered his face with one hand, striking a pose. "How will the mighty, magnificent Ray overcome this great challenge facing him? Well, let's see!" He drew a card, randomly swishing it through the air before putting it in his hand. He struck another pose- one leg forwards, his hand concealing his face, and a card raised high in the air, then bringing the card down onto the table.

"The dark to your light! The victory to your defeat! Behold! I normal summon Evilswarm Castor!

George interrupted him. "Really? You knew you were playing against Constellar, and you took Evilswarm?"

Jay looked at him, annoyed. "Of course I did. Can't you see? It's the epic battle! My darkness triumphing over your light! Extinguishing it! The great leader of the forces of this darkness is me- the mighty Jay!" As if to contradict this statement, his excessive bling positively glowed. George rolled his eyes. "Jay, I'm pretty sure the good guys always win."

Jay was taken aback. "Damn, I should've swapped decks with you or something. Oh well, the show must go on! The mighty Jay will triumph over the savage forces of burning light with his soothing, healing darkness! Now, back to our duel!"

As they were speaking, Evilswarm Castor had appeared on the field. He was wearing black armor with a red cape, and bore a sword with two blades attached to one hilt.

"As you probably know, light-loving loser" George interrupted him before Jay could continue. "You know, Jay, that's not how a hero talks."

Jay glared at him in a most un-hero like fashion. "Very well, friend lost on the path of light, as you probably know, when I summon Evilswarm Castor, I get an additional normal summon this turn. So, I'll use my additional normal summon right now, and summon Evilswarm Heliotrope!"

At these words, he raised another card high into the air, bringing it down. A black mist exploded from the area and Evilswarm Heliotrope rose out of it. Evilswarm Heliotrope wore black armor and wielded a short sword. He boasted an impressive 1950 attack points.

"Now, behold, as my ultimate monster makes its appearance! XYZ Summon, Evilswarm Ophion!"

A card detached itself from Jay's extra deck. Gleaming black, it rose itself high into the air above the two overlayed Evilswarm monsters, and slammed itself upon them. A black mist rose obscuring Jay's holographic board and red and blue wings glittered from it. The creature within the mist roared, dispersing it, revealing a fearsome black dragon with red and blue wings. Behind it Jay stood, his face gleaming with triumph.

"Once per turn, I can detach a card from Evilswarm Ophion to add an "Infestation" spell or trap card from my deck to my hand." A card removed itself from Jay's main deck. "What fearsome spell or trap might have I added to defeat you, George?" Jay taunted.

George rolled his eyes. "You added Infestation Pandemic, Jay."

Jay stepped back half a pace, shocked. "H-how did you know?"

George rolled his eyes again. "That's the most generic play out there for an Evilswarm deck, so obviously you would use it. Even I know that it won't help you beat me at all, though."

Jay gave George an ugly glare. "We shall see."

Jay set his Infestation Pandemic and ended his turn.

"My turn!" George declared. "I'll draw a card." George drew a card and grinned. "First, I'll switch my Wind-Up Zenmaines into attack position. Now, I summon Constellar Pollux!"

As George placed a card on the holographic field, a warrior with white and golden armor rose from it. The polar opposite of the Evilswarm Castor Jay had used, Constellar Pollux wielded the same double-bladed sword, but his was pure white.

George continued. "My Pollux shares the same effect of your Castor, so I get an additional normal summon." George took a card from his hand. "I'll normal summon Constellar Kaus! With his effect, I can make two Constellar monsters a level higher, so I'll raise both Kaus and Castor's levels by one to make them both level five."

Pollux and Kaus both gained a level, and stepped towards each other as George declared, "I overlay! XYZ summon!"

A blinding light erupted from the middle of the field. From the light rose a warrior with magnificent white, golden and blue armor, a streamlined helmet on his head. A blue cape with golden trim flowed behind him. At his side was a slim white sword.

"XYZ Summon! Constellar Pleiades!"

George grinned. "THAT is how a hero makes his entrance, Jay. Now, with Constellar Pleiades effect, I can detach a xyz material to send a card on your field to your hand. Say farewell to your Evilswarm Ophion!"

Constellar Pleiades swung into motion. Thrusting his sword high, he slammed it into the hologram, and a crack of white light burst from where the sword met the ground. It sped towards Ophion, and destroyed the hologram under its feet. Ophion attempted to fly, but the threads of light bound it, and cast it through the ground. A card rose and returned itself to Jay's extra deck. Another card sped into his graveyard.

"Now, Constellar Pleiades and Wind-Up Zenmaines attack you directly!" George shouted. Zenmaines shot a burst of gears towards Jay, assaulting him with 1500 attack points. Constellar Pleiades swung his sword and released a crescent shaped burst of lights which struck Jay dealing 2500 damage. Above his head, Jay's life points dropped to 4000. George grinned, and looked at Luo. Luo gave him an encouraging nod. "I'll end my turn with that."

Throughout all of this, Jay's sneer had never left his face. He drew a card, looked at it, and grinned. "The hero always gets good luck! I'll summon another Evilswarm Castor, and with its effect, normal summon Evilswarm Mandragora!"

Luo spoke. "Couldn't you have special summoned Mandragora with its effect and then normal summoned Castor?"

Jay glared at him. "Y-yes, but…" he thought for a few moments. "I need an Evilswarm in hand for this play, Luo!"

Luo looked at George. "He's going to summon Evilswarm Bahamut and try to take one of your monsters, probably Pleiades. That way he could return Zenmaines to your hand."

Jay glared at Luo. "How did you know? Whatever, my plan is fool proof."

Luo started to open his mouth but George interrupted. "It certainly is Jay, go for it!"

Jay grinned. "Even you recognize your imminent defeat! I overlay my Evilswarm Castor and my Evilswarm Mandragora to xyz summon Evilswarm Bahamut!"

George quickly interrupted Jay, who appeared to be doing a victory dance, bling bouncing. "I can activate the effect of Constellar Pleiades on my opponent's turn as well. I'll return Bahamut to your hand." Bahamut, as quickly as it had appeared, dispersed into darkness that collected into a card and returned to Jay's extra deck. Jay was clearly shocked. "B-but you said-" George interrupted him. "I lied, and I don't feel bad about it, either. It was a small sin for a great victory." Jay scowled. "What if I have a spell or trap to end it for you instead?" He retorted.

"That is sort of possible" Luo said. "However, I find it unlikely. You started the game with a hand of five. So far you have used four of those cards. You have drawn two cards, and added Infestation Pandemic to your hand. We know that at least one of the three cards remaining in your hand is an Evilswarm because you need one to use for Bahamuts effect. That means there are two cards in your hand we do not know. If you had any traps you would have set them, so that means your two cards are either monsters or spells. If you had a card such as Dark Hole, you would have used it while you had no cards on the field."

Jay drooped. "Very impressive, Luo. You really could do a lot with a decent deck." Sighing, he handed the turn over to George.

"No reason to drag this out" George said. "It's no fun putting a lot of flair into beating you, Jay, when all of yours is gone." George attacked directly with both of his monsters. In a burst of gears and light, Jay's life points exploded to zero. Jay and George picked their decks off of the holographic duel fields retracted into small rectangles which reattached themselves to the tables from which they came. George and Jay shook hands stiffly, and then left the room.

Luo exited as well, listening patiently to George excitingly chatting about his victory, releasing all of the excitement he had managed to hold in during the match. They walked down the hallway. As he was about to exit the school building, he felt a hand upon his shoulder. He saw Jay standing behind him.

"Luo, I know that nobody believes me, but I wasn't missing all of those years because I was drunk in the tropics. The last thing I remember before I was found in Hawaii was entering a tournament. It was held by the same company that's holding this one. Even if you don't believe me, a corporation with this sort of money can get away with anything, so watch your back."

Luo nodded, and left the school, heading straight home. The newly-created deck in his pocket could be his savior- a ticket to a life of luxury and first place in one of the greatest tournaments of the year. Or it could be damning him to wasted time- or worse.


End file.
